FORTITUDE AND FOUNTAINS

Healin' Good Pretty Cure - Episode 3
My Own Review
FORTITUDE AND FOUNTAINS


The third episode of Healin’ Good ♡ gives Cure Grace a new ally to fight alongside. Let’s see how her introduction to the team goes.

Nyatoran is living the best life

So the synopsis for this episode: Nodoka struggles to keep the whole PreCure thing a secret from Chiyu, whilst Penguitan is unable to keep Latte in one place. However, Latte wandering off ultimately benefits Penguitan, as he is able to find himself a new partner.

The Penguin Scream

Hey, this pup looks familiar...

Nodoka doesn’t exactly make a convincing liar

If you’re expecting this episode to focus on Chiyu Sawaizumi, you’d be correct. After all, no prizes for guessing who would be the second girl to take up the mantle of a PreCure for this season – the opening credits pretty much gave that one away, as well as all the pre-release information.

Chiyu shows Nodoka her place

This episode gives us more information about Chiyu. For a start, her family owns a hot spring inn (going a little bit Konohana Kitan on us). She also mentions how once something is on her mind she can’t stop thinking about it – I’d like to think she is specifically referring to Nodoka.

Mentor mascots letting off steam, while Chiyu eavesdrops

Shindoine is our villain for this week

Shindoine seems utterly devoted to her King. If the Pathogerm King is anything like past overlord villains, he’ll cast his underlings aside without so much as a second thought, but that’s something to concern ourselves with much later on in the season.
For the time being, a cadre villain appearing also means the appearance of the monster of the week.

The first two Megapathogerms we saw in this season were more on the natural side – formed from a patch of flowers and a tree respectively. Interesting how this one seems to be more human-made, being the water tank or reservoir of the Sawaizumi Ryoukan. Not that it really matters; whatever the case, Nodoka has to step up.

Cure Grace protects Chiyu

Chiyu witnesses Nodoka transform into Cure Grace, and then gets caught up in the battle. The result leads to Cure Grace getting hurt (poisoned after narrowly avoiding a tree crushing down on her), because something needs to happen so Chiyu can have an opportunity to shine.

Chiyu offers Penguitan her courage

I suppose it would probably be worth mentioning that this little penguin is not exactly the courageous type (far more of a Nervous Wreck), and he feels like a failure after letting Latte just wander off (though Nyatoran is equally to blame). His heart is in the right place, though, and Chiyu offering her courage to him leads to the second Cure making her debut.

Cure Fontaine

Chiyu’s debut as Cure Fontaine is good. She delivers some pretty hefty blows to the pathogerm, and shows some impressive dodging skills. Admittedly she does have a little help from Cure Grace, but this is Cure Fontaine’s first fight.

Nyatoran comes back to discover Penguitan has a new partner

The episode comes to an end after Nodoka and Chiyu take care of Latte, and Nyatoran returns from his wandering.
I’m happy with this episode. Chiyu’s debut as Cure Fontaine was enjoyable, and I certainly won’t complain about Nodoka and Chiyu growing closer.
I already liked Chiyu from what we saw of her in the previous episodes, and now this one just confirms that she is a good character.
Next time, the third member joins the team.






MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION
Chiyu the female innkeeper's daughter (where's her papa?): Mrs. Nao Sawaizumi is a pretty traditionalist innkeeper running a ryoukan, or hot-spring-based rural inn, to which her only daughter (habeas corpus for her as an only child) is heir. The closest male authority figure at the inn is retainer Mr. Kawai, who, along with Cure Grace, illustrates what happens to a human pathogerm victim...
Symptoms on human victims? Upon being squirted with poisoned water (did they swallow anything or did they absorb the toxin through the skin?), both Mr. Kawai and a transformed Nodoka fell unconscious, and that state lasted until the pathogerm du jour was vanquished... So that can lapse into a coma if not treated in time?
A closer look at Shindoine: Our baroness of the year regards the King of Pathogerms as her soulmate (her word is "aite" - ) and appears to be his number one keister-licker... most surely she was a royal mistress in the good old days, right? Her mode of summoning a pathogerm to infect something involves, besides, blowing a kiss at the target! (Mono is NOT the only illness you can get from a smooch, btw)

What a wholesome episode, and what a great character Chiyu is shaping up to be! I love how straight-forward she is, speaking whatever might be on her mind. It was hilarious how she called Nodoka out for being at school when the Megapathogerm was being discussed. It was good to see she had enough tact to not press the issue in class about her denial of being at school when the monster had attacked, or the fact she had seen her talking with animals. She was also polite enough not to brazenly walk in when she overheard them talking in the baths (her family runs an Inn). Instead, she patiently waited for the opportunity to ask her about it when they were alone. And for better or worse, I think we can all think of a few characters in previous series who would have pushed the issue on the spot, haha!

What I also loved about Chiyu was how smart she was to have figured out what makes the animals around Nodoka so special. Having witnessed her transform into Cure Grace, she understood that the animals she is with play a key role of enabling her to fight monsters. So what does she do? She takes the initiative and ask straight-up asks Penguitan if they can work together!

It was nice to see her to extend a hand because we understand how Penguitan struggled with his fears of humans (understandably so after being chased by preschool kids), and his lack of confidence in his own abilities. He just needs a little nudge of encouragement that he can be strong too. Better yet, Chiyu offered Penguitan more than just a partnership for power, she told him it’s okay for him to depend on her, she will share a bit of her courage and together they will be able to protect the ones they care about. If that isn’t a wholesome way to form a partnership, I don’t know what is!

But this encounter wouldn’t have happened today had it not been for Latte choosing to visit Nodoka’s school! Poor Penguitan, he takes his eye off her for one second, and she’s gone sniffing her out. Well, at least she also forced him to go out to look for her, haha! It is because he had to go to school as well that he accompanied them to Chiyu’s place after school, where Shindoine decided to target the Inn’s water system! So thank you Latte!

Speaking of Shindoine’s meddling, we got to see Nodoka be put in a perilous situation when she protected Chiyu from flying debris of large tree branch that would have killed her. (I mean one of her family’s employees was already hit and knocked unconscious by an earlier attack!) I was genuinely surprised we didn’t see her grab Chiyu out of the way, instead she literally covered her with her body and had the tree literally bounce off of her back. As silly as it looked, it did crack me up. But this also served as a catalyst since Nodoka had gotten badly injured from it.

As for Cure Fontaine’s transformation sequence, much like Cure Grace’s, it was a snappy one, yet they still managed to make it so pleasing to the eyes. I gotta say, I am digging the use of the lab coat. The way they are playing with the material, I love it.

Lastly, I am curious about how true Shindoine’s claim of being King Pathogerm’s soulmate (aite) is. Hopefully she isn’t a Papple 2.0 in terms of experiencing an unrequited love with the leader. I find it quite intriguing how she claims she knows and is the only one who can see his face (Daruizen however called her out on it, so it’s hard to say). It’s also worth to note how she vehemently denied he had lost to the Precures in the past. It would definitely be a cool twist if it turns out King Pathogerm had actually made a strategic retreat to come back and fight another day. Who knows, but it is fun to speculate in the mean time!

NEXT WEEK: It looks like it will be Hinata and Nyatoran’s turn to meet! Looking forward to it!